The proposed dissertation will evaluate the effectiveness of the Medicaid and CHC programs at providing preventive care services to low income, nonelderly persons. These programs employ two strategies to increase the use of preventive services -- lowering the prices that consumers pay for all types of care, and directly promoting prevention in lifestyle and medical care delivery. Program effectiveness will be evaluated by answering two questions. First, to what extent have the Medicaid and CHC programs increased preventive care use by low income individuals? Second, how does the level of preventive care use achieved under these two programs compare both to that enjoyed by those in the mainstream of American society and to levels recommended by the medical community? The analysis will be conducted within the context of a multivariate model designed to tie variation in the probability of preventive care use to type of program coverage (i.e., Medicaid or CHC) and a variety of individual determinants. The model will be estimated with data from the 1976 Bureau of Community Health Services Household Survey and from the 1980 National Medical Care Utilization and Expenditure Survey, which provide detailed information on preventive service utilization, health status, and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of several thousand individuals. The final results will be translated into predicted probabilities of use in order to compare the effects of Medicaid and the CHC program on preventive care utilization for specific age and sex subgroups. The final report will present these predictions along with the detailed econometric estimates as evidence for the discussion of policy implications of the findings.